Consumers have already discovered the advantages of shopping from their homes by the use of catalogues, television shopping channels or by computer transaction systems. There are numerous public internet web sites and private intranet sites that offer various articles and services for sale. Most of these public web sites and private sites operate in national configurations where the buyer and seller are restricted to a particular language and currency.
There are a number of transaction systems using electronic communications, including the internet, as conduits for carrying out an exchange of goods and funds. The conventional technology includes a number of examples containing some relevant elements for international transactions for goods to be sold across national boundaries.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,542 to King, Jr. et al., teaches a system for ordering items using an electronic catalogue stored on a publicly accessible database. The patent includes a description of a related scheme of online catalogues provided by the Prodigy-Corp., as set out in col. 1, beginning with line 26. The use of the Prodigy system suggests the use of the internet for providing both catalogue information and as a conduit for entering electronic purchase orders to be sent to the vendors. A key aspect of the catalogue system is that both public and private catalogues can be maintained. Both can be updated electronically, presumably through the internet since other methods are not described. The catalogue system includes provisions for pre-negotiated prices and predetermined shopping lists for specific customers. A key marketing aspect of this system is the provision of competing product information since catalogue data from multiple vendors is provided for the public electronic catalogue. The authorization aspects of the requisition process appear to be limited to that carried out within a customer's own organization rather than through a third party bank or clearing house.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,405 to Chasek discloses a system of creating electronic or virtual money for personal transactions. The virtual money can integrate the functions of cash, checks and credit cards while the system provides constant surveillance against fraud. This virtual money is conceived as an international medium of exchange, and includes provisions for automated sales tax collections and payments. As a result, the purchase price is incremented by multipliers for city, state and federal tax within national borders. The system uses an on-person terminal permitting automated transactions of all sorts as well as record-keeping of personal accounts. This terminal system includes a known universal toll-paying system using point-of-sale debiting via radio signals. The Chasek system uses an electronic banking sub-system that can transfer funds between two individuals. The operation of the system includes the use of medium-exchange packets of bytes that identify the personal account custodian, the payer, the amount of transaction, the type of transaction, the vendor, a security number and a national code. Such a transfer uses a personal account custodian to transfer between the customer (who has transferred funds into a predetermined account) to another individual such as a vendor who then obtains access to those funds via the personal account custodian. Communications between personal account custodians and vendor account custodians are carried out using radio waves via a satellite transponder, insuring that a personal account custodian in one country can reach a vendor account custodian in another country.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,225 to Botvin discloses a method for conducting financial transactions via digital facsimile wherein the transaction is cleared after the draft documents faxed by the payer to the payer's bank are presented and processed via machine-readable equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,493 to Wojcik et al. discloses a system for managing customer orders including an electronic catalogue to streamline the buying functions. The system has an order management function, integrated with financial services, to process orders and create financial records. The system also includes a logistics function for consolidating orders for optimum delivery over existing transportation systems. An inventory management system is also included and arranged to cooperate with the order management function. This functionality is achieved by accessing each subsystem data base on a real-time basis by horizontal integration of each subsystem to create an efficient data flow between the various subsystems. The selection of the details of transporting the goods is one of the subsystems that is accessed on a real time basis. Thus, customers entering orders can be provided with the shipping costs as well as other shipping details as the order is input. Likewise, credit authorization can be carried out on a real time basis as an order is entered.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,368 to Morita et al. discloses an electronic currency conversion apparatus. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,293 to Bosten discloses a transaction card capable of authorizing a transaction using various currencies. U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,721 to Chung et al. discloses a computer reservation system using a “global currency” to carry out consolidation of travel reservations throughout the world. U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,115 to Fraser discloses a system for automatically matching sellers and buyers using, among other techniques, the internet. U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,189 to Doi et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,306 to Morimoto et al. both disclose electronic language translators.
If there are international sales, realistic currency conversions become a factor, as do issues of customs, import/export duties and shipping. These are not taken into account in conventional transactions system. Also, in conventional internet or intranet transaction systems the translations of all foreign catalogues, including the full terms of sale and shipping costs, are not always provided. As a result the buyer of goods from a foreign country often faces large, unexpected charges upon delivery of the goods. Such systems are clearly not suitable for a global market place or the requirements of doing business internationally.